The October 06 Comics, Part 4 [Spoilers]

New Avengers 24, Secret Six 5


New Avengers #24
In this issue, the Sentry goes of by himself to think, and--because he can--he goes to the moon to do so. While he's there, the Inhumans (who live there) attack him because they are at war with the US (due to the US having taken possession of the Inhumans' Terrigen Mists after Quicksilver stole them). When he explains himself, they invite him to dinner and to stay the night. While there, he tells them something about his past relations with them (which of course they have no memory of). On the whole a good issue featuring the Sentry's outsider perspective; he is of necessity very self-focused, a disadvantage when dealing with community issues such as Civil War.

A thing I found irritating, but couldn't really argue with, was Crystal's portrayal as a morally ambiguous individual. After learning that she and the Sentry had been lovers in the past (at a point when she and the Human Torch, an old boyfriend, had temporarily split up), the two kiss. The Sentry, remembering his wife, stops, and tells Crystal that he's married. She pauses, saying "But--only on Earth, right?" (And then Iron Man shows up to save him from certain temptation. That and to talk him into coming back to Earth to beat up on Captain America.)

All right. Crystal has almost always been presented as someone who leads with her heart. "Faithful" has never been the first thing you'd think of to describe her. I am not, therefore, objecting to her approaching the Sentry in this way, or to her obvious willingness under certain circumstances to go after a married man. It is not out of character. What I would have liked to see, however, is something of the source of this--it's not simply moral ambiguity, it's also arrogance--as an Inhuman, royalty, she has less respect for the rules and customs of Earth than she does for those of her own people. Just calling her a bad person doesn't really address it.


Secret Six #5
Okay, I was wrong. Neither Knockout nor Deadshot were under the control of others when they had sex. (I do think that we were supposed to think this, and I'd sure like to know which of the two was saying "no" last issue.) Instead, Knockout has no idea that--on Earth--love relationships are usually supposed to be sexually exclusive. (As for Deadshot, he might have figured that if Knockout was all right with it, Scandal must be as well--and wasn't inclined to think it out much further than that at the moment.) Actually, I like that a lot better.

Oh, and I also like the Hatter even more now, and I wouldn't have thought that possible!